Enrollment at COD highest since 2005

Enrollment at College of DuPage community college increased more than 9 percent since last fall (QUan Truong, Chicago Tribune)

When it was time for Ben Davies, of La Grange, to pick a college, he zeroed in on the College of DuPage.

It's close to home, the 19-year-old said, and offers a variety of classes for cheap.

Davies is not alone in this thinking. Enrollment this fall is the highest it's been since 2005, the year College of DuPage switched from quarters to semesters, college officials said.

The 28,627 head count of both full- and part-time students climbed about 9.4 percent from last year to this year. Full-time enrollment alone climbed about 7.6 percent since last fall, up to 16,565.

"You can put a tree in the ground and all of a sudden it really pops because it's anchored now," said COD President Robert Breuder. "I think that's what we're seeing here."

He credits the boom to a number of factors, including an economic downturn that pushed parents and students to look at closer and cheaper education options, and efforts from the college to expand.

The college has added new programs and degrees, including a 3+1 option that allows students to transfer into partnering universities for bachelor's degrees while paying discounted tuition and staying on COD campus.

The college is also undergoing $550 million in campus renovations. The bulk of it is expected to be done by the end of this year. By the time students step on campus in fall of 2014, every campus building will have been built in 2009 or later, Breuder said.

"We look like a real college," he said."That doesn't diminish community colleges, but if you want to be competitive or be seen as a post secondary provider, you have to look the part."

There's also been a 35 percent increase in the number of recent high school graduates who attend the college. They now make up about 18 percent of the total student population.

A silver lining in the economic downturn is that families started looking at alternatives for education, Breuder said, adding that perhaps the stigma on community colleges is taking a turn.

"We know that community colleges were often seen as perhaps something less than a real college because didn't offer the baccalaureate degree," he said. "Moms and dads and others who had to make a choice started looking at the alternatives … suddenly they look and they're saying maybe I should look at COD."

The campus is much larger than what he'd expect for a community college, said Davies who is going on his sophomore year studying welding.

"They offer a lot of different degrees and it's a lot cheaper so I think that's why a lot of people choose it."

Enrollment at the College of DuPage is the highest since 2005, the year COD switched from quarters to semesters. This fall's head count of 28,627 is 9.4 percent higher than it was last fall. In the past five years, enrollment has climbed 11.5 percent. The chart below shows the annual enrollment at COD since fall of 2005.